Nick Young's strange empty-net goal lifts Union men's hockey past Colgate

Goalie looking to the side — PHOTOGRAPHER: Stan Hudy

Union men's hockey goalie Connor Murphy made 28 saves in Friday's 3-1 win over Colgate in Hamilton.

The Union College men’s hockey team scored two empty-net goals Friday against Colagte at Class of 1965 Arena in Hamilton.

One was a traditional empty-netter by Ben Tupker with Raiders goalie Carter Gylander pulled for an extra attacker late in the game.

But the first one? It was one of the most unusual empty-netters you will ever see.

Defenseman Nick Young’s empty-netter with 0.5 seconds left in the second period ended up being the game-winning goal in the Dutchmen’s 3-1 ECAC Hockey victory.

Union was ahead 1-0 on a first-period goal by Liam Robertson. With 2.8 seconds left in the second period and the faceoff in the Union left circle, Colgate head coach Don Vaughan pulled Gylander for an extra attacker in the hopes of trying to steal a goal before the period expired.

The move spectacularly backfired.

Owen Farris cleanly won the faceoff from Alex Young and drew the puck back to Nick Young on the Union goal line. He quickly fired the puck down the ice and hit the center of the net.

“We’re all yelling from the bench for ‘Younger’ just to try to one time it,” Union head coach Josh Hauge said. “We won the draw back, and it went right to him and he hit it perfect.”

That was the first time Hauge had ever seen that happen.

“We did it with 3 1-2 seconds a couple of weeks ago, and I was like that was too early,” Hauge said. “So that’s why we were all yelling [at Nick Young] to shoot for it.”

Ferris winning the draw was a key factor.

“He’s unbelievable on the dot,” Hauge said. “For him to be able to do that, it was huge for us.”

Union goalie and Hudson Falls native Connor Murphy had his second straight 28-save performance. He came within 4:01 of earning his second shutout at Colgate before Colton Young scored.

“I feel for him because he probably deserved [the shoutout]” Hauge said. “He was lights-out all night.”

The victory, coupled with Brown’s 6-0 loss to St. Lawrence, moves Union (5-9-1 ECACH, 17 points; 11-14-1 overall) into the eighth and final home-ice slot to the ECACH tournament sudden-death first-round game. Union has a one-point lead over Brown, and trails seventh-place Clarkson by a point. Clarkson lost to Yale 4-0.

Union, which plays at Cornell at 7 p.m. Saturday, improved to 4-2 at Class of 1965 Arena. The Dutchmen were 3-20-2 at Starr Rink, Colgate’s previous home rink.

Union 1 1 1 — 3

Colgate 0 0 1 — 1

First Period — 1, Union, Robertson 7 (Watkins), 14:03. Penalties — Ferris, Uni (interference), :30; Nixon, Uni (hooking), 6:33.

Second Period — 2, Union, N. Young 2 (Ferris), 19:59 (en). Penalties — Anderson, Col (tripping), 5:29.

Third Period — 3, Colgate, C. Young 6 (A.Young, Labelle), 15:59. 4, Union, Tupker 6 (Villegas), 18:55 (en). Penalties — Sanda, Uni (slashing), 1:43.

Shots on Goal — Union 6-3-5 — 14. Colgate 10-6-13 — 29.

Power-play opportunities — Union 0 of 1; Colgate 0 of 3.

Goalies — Union, Murphy 9-12-1 (29 shots-28 saves). Colgate, Gylander 13-11-2 (12-11).

A — 831.

Referees — Kevin Graber, Anthony Dapuzzo. Linesmen — JP Waleski, John Rey.

11 CORNELL 3, RPI 1

Travis Mitchell scored twice to spark the 11th-ranked Big Red past the Engineers at Lynah Rink in Ithaca.

Mitchell scored 4:48 into the game. He got his second goal midway through the second period.

TJ Walsh tied it for RPI 32 seconds after Mitchell’s first goal. Sam Malinski broke the tie at 10:12 of the first.

RPI 1 0 0 — 1

Cornell 2 1 0 — 3

First Period — 1, Cornell, Mitchell 5 (Malone, Rego), 4:48. 2, RPI, Walsh 7 (Smolinski), 5:20 (pp). 3, Cornell, Malinski 6 (Andreev), 10:12. Penalties — Malinski, Cor (hooking), 5:13; Malone, Co (hooking), 11:56.

Second Period — 4, Cornell, Micthell 6 (Berard, Seger), 9:58. Penalties — Mitchell, Cor (roughing), 12:36; Sertti, RPI (tripping), 14:18; Klee, RPI (hooking), 17:43.

Third Period — None. Penalties — Ardanaz, RPI (hooking), 1:35; Gagnon, RPI (slashing), 3:59; O’Leary, Cor (interference), 17:12.

Shots on Goal — RPI 4-5-2 — 11. Cornell 10-11-5 — 26.

Power-play opportunities — RPI 1 of 4; Cornell 0 of 4.

Goalies — RPI, Miller 1-1-0 (26 shots-23 saves). Cornell, Shane 13-6-1 (11-10).

A — 3,723.

Referees — Mason Riley, Douglas Place. Linesmen — Rick Lembo, Michael Magee.

Women

2 YALE 10, UNION 1

Forward Charlotte Welch and defenseman Emma Seitz each had a hat trick, and the ECACH-leading Bulldogs scored five first-period goals and routed the Dutchwomen at Messa Rink.

Welch scored two of her goals in the opening period for Yale (15-1-1, 46.5 points; 22-1-1 overall), and Ray had one. They each completed their hat tricks in the third period.

Carmen Melo had the only goal for Union (4-12-1, 11.5 points; 11-17-1), which gave up 10 goals in a game for the second time this season. The Dutchwomen lost 10-0 at Colgate on Jan. 7.

Yale 5 2 3 — 10

Union 1 0 0 — 1

First Period — 1, Yale, Welch 7 (Dalton), 2:25. 2, Yale, Ray 9 (Bargman, Hartje), 3:02. 3, Yale, DiAntonio 13 (Dalton, Welch), 4:47. 4, Union, Merlo 4 (Hebert, King), 13:17. 5, Yale, Welch 8 (Poniatovskaia, Seitz), 16:18. 6, Yale, Seitz 4 (DiAntonio), 19:53 (pp). Penalties — Friday, Uni (holding), 16:06.

Second Period — 7, Yale, Bargman 12 (Ray, Muhn). 11:14 (pp). 8, Yale, Seitz 5 (Muhn, Lee) 14:11. Penalties — Seitz, Yale (tripping), 2:54; Greco, Uni (hooking), 9:31; Rippon, Yale (tripping), 11:35; King, Uni (hooking), 14:11; Quan, Uni (slashing), 9:00.

Third Period — 9, Yale, Welch 9, 8:27. 10, Yale, Ray 10 (Trummer, Goode), 15:48. 11, Yale, Ray 11 (Zander, Bojarski), 19:09. Penalties — Zander, Yale (holding), 19:44.

Shots on Goal — Yale 12-20-14 — 46. Union 5-7-3 — 15.

Power-play opportunities — Yale 2 of 4; Union 0 of 2.

Goalies — Yale, Dukaric 22-1-1 (9 shots-8 saves), DeNault (11:01 second, 6-6). Union, Matsoukas 11-17-1 (12-8), Evans (0:00 second, 20-18).

A — 2:15.

Referees — Laura White, Matt Wyld. Linesmen — Tim Waters, Jamie Colacino.

BROWN 4, RPI 1

Jade Iginla, the daughter of former NHL great Jerome Iginla, scored twice to lead the Bears past the Engineers at Houston Field House.

Brown 1 2 1 — 4

RPI 0 1 0 — 1

First Period — 1, Brown, Iginla 12 (McDadi), 10:09. Penalties — None.

Second Period — 2, Brown, Iginla 13, :18. 3, Brown, Mangiafico 2 (Piersiak, Gallagher), 10:58. 4, RPI, Kaiser 11 (Larsen, Wagner), 19:06 (pp). Penalties — Gauvin, Bro (hooking), 4:22; Stockfish, Bro (hooking), 18:54.

Third Period — 5, Brown, Piersiak 1, 18:49 (en). Penalties — Price, RPI (hooking), 3:55; Piersiak, Bro (tripping), 8:15; Byrum, RPI (boarding), 10:51.

Shots on Goal — Brown 3-10-7 — 20. RPI 12-12-10 — 34.

Power-play opportunities — Brown 0 of 2; RPI 1 of 3.

Goalies — Brown, Doyle 6-11-1 (34 shots-33 saves). RPI, Rampado 9-19-1 (19-16).

A — 100.

Referees — Tom Lynch, Will O’Malley. Linesmen — Bryan Feiler, Carmine Vetrano.

Contact Ken Schott by email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @slapschotts.